The Easter Diaries

Easter is a holiday that makes me really happy to have children. I remember years past, how I'd enjoy the springtime and the day, maybe a picnic or gathering of some sort, but I always felt like it would be more fun with kids. Easter baskets and egg hunts just aren't really things that get adults all excited.  I also still stand by what I said last year; I daydream of a communal spiritual ceremony on Easter Sunday that incorporates a celebration of seasonal renewal with meaningful remnants carefully chosen from the world's great religious traditions. That's the kind of Easter I dream of for both adults and children, in addition to the normal hoopla of colored eggs and jellybeans.

But since I haven't got that planned just yet, for now, children, this holiday is for you. 

Easter morning, coming out to find their baskets of goodies.

It was fun gathering little things for them over the last couple weeks. Each girl got a My Little Pony (Lucy fell in love with them at the Barnes & Noble of all places) and a mini Mooshka doll (mermaid for Lucy, fairy for Polly) and a book and a fancy soap. Each got two packets of smarties and an organic lollipop and they got a package of Eric Carle bath toys to share. This was plenty for them to get excited about...BUT there was also a big basket of all the extra candy that came from grandparents and great grandparents, hollow chocolate bunnies and marshmallows and little foil wrapped chocolate eggs. Kind of intended for Darin and I but....Polly got into that basket while no one was looking and swiftly unwrapped what she hoped would be her own breakfast: a crispy chocolate bunny. Whoops!

Darin had to work and it was a cloudy rainy day. The girls and I spent part of the cool morning outside just wandering round our yard. The girls think the little shed is a dancefloor.

 

We took a naptime drive for Polly and I could tell Lucy was not going to fall asleep. So for the first time, we went on a pretty long drive and just chatted the whole way. I told her stories about my youth in Placerville, stories she could appreciate, like about my siblings and I climbing to the top of the airport tower at night. I heard her in the backseat quietly telling herself, "Mommy, and Jojo, and Addie...." Then I told her we'd drive out and look at some farms and she got obsessed with the idea of seeing a barn. I told her I know of a really cool barn but it's kind of falling down. She found this very interesting and when we finally arrived it was starting to sprinkle and we pulled over and got out to take a closer look. At first she said, "that's so sad." But we talked about how maybe horses stop by for a rest, and how owls and other birds might still build their nests in the rafter, how this barn still sees a lot of life. She loved this idea. The whole time she was rapt, almost prayerfully. It was very cool to see my two year old daughter feeling moved; I've noticed this a few times lately, she is feeling things very deeply and thinking them over, and getting a sense of her emotions.

When we got home we frolicked in the rain a little bit.

That ipod selfie was the only Easter picture I got with my girls, but we'd taken a few the day before, the day we had plans to go to a birthday party but I didn't think the girls' runny noses and sniffles would be appreciated. Our early April colds kept it a very mellow Easter season.

We did get to dye some eggs and make our own little circus.

Oh yeah, and I'm sure I've mentioned this before but isn't my Easter tablecloth (vintage Avon, thrifted) the cutest?

Polly slept for an almost four hour nap that sickly afternoon the day before Easter. The longest nap she's had since newbornhood.

She still has tiny feet. The girl is seriously independent, a little rambler, but her small stature and good-monkey-clingin-mama-love help keep her my sweet little tiny baby.

And even when she's got a cold she's usually up for some fun.  

Making a little hide-out under the fir tree out front on Easter:

Playing in the rain.

From my little chickies and all, we wish you all a happy spring!